Down too long in the midnight sea…

Headed out today to the Emerald wreck (80 fsw) on the Tuna Seazure‘s maiden voyage out of Manasquan.  This small wooden steamer is believed to be the remains of the FRANCIS WRIGHT.  The distinctive feature of this wreck is the double engines which rise 15 feet off the sandy seabed.  The remains of a broken prop shaft can be found aft of the engines and forward the wreck is mostly sanded in with “chunks” of wreckage protruding here and there providing good lobster habitat.

Heading in to tie in I was pleased to find visibility and bottom conditions about the same as Sunday’s trip with 20-25 feet of visibility and 57F top to bottom.  The shot landed right next to the engine making my work easy.  A LARGE blackfish came to investigate when the mussels coating the engine started getting rubbed off by the chain during my tie in efforts.  I scouted around the engine noting several more large fish before tying off a reel and heading forward.  I spotted several nice sized lobsters and did a bit a fanning before calling it quits.

During the interval John recalled his epic battle with one of the large tog of which he was ultimately defeated despite firing multiple rounds into the fierce beast.  Not one to walk away in shame he turned on the big fish’s allies and took several sea bass casualties.  Kenny vowed to avenge John’s loss, and was rewarded with a nice 14 pound blackfish when he finished the job.  Tony grabbed a lobster and I snapped some pics.  A really nice set of dives.